Paraconic Acids: The Natural Products from Lichen Symbiont

Abstract

Paraconic acids, belonging to the class of g-butyrolactone natural products, display a broad range of biological activities such as antibiotic and antitumor properties.
Consequently a great number of synthetic strategies have been devised for them, ranging from diastereoselective and chiral pool approaches to the application of asymmetric catalysis. This review gives a critical account on the different methods developed that lead to paraconic acids of great structural variety.